Gordon MacRae in Victor Herbert Operettas - Plus a Bonus LP

My posts of pop operettas starring Gordon MacRae have been surprisingly popular. (They are The New Moon and Vagabond King, Student Prince and Merry Widow, and Desert Song and Roberta). So let's complete the set (and fill a request) with this disc combining The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta, two enduring Victor Herbert favorites.

As before, these are pop versions of the operettas, such as audiences might have heard from MacRae's weekly Railroad Hour on radio. Most of the song selections are quite brief, allowing more of the numbers to be included on each side of a 12-inch LP (or separately on 10-inch albums).

My transfer comes from a 12-inch disc, although I believe I have at least Naughty Marietta in yet another format - a double EP.

This post also includes a bonus - a 10-inch LP of selections from Naughty Marietta and Herbert's 1905 operetta Mlle. Modiste, from the RCA "Show Time" Series of the early 1950s, featuring Doretta Morrow.

The Red Mill

Still from the 1906 production

The operetta was a precursor of the American musical comedy, generally with slight but amusing stage business stitching together the singing. The Red Mill is a good example; Wikipedia describes it well: "The farcical story concerns two American vaudevillians who wreak havoc at an inn in the Netherlands, interfering with two marriages; but all ends well." To make sure you can place the opera, Capitol is sure to show you on the LP cover a red mill and the delightful Lucille Norman in a Dutch bonnet.

The photo of Norman and MacRae that inspired the cover art

Henry Blossom wrote the book and lyrics for the operetta, which opened on Broadway in 1906. The main attraction is Herbert's endless supply of melodies, including "The Isle of Our Dreams," "Moonbeams," "Because You're You" and "In Old New York.

The arranger and conductor for The Red Mill was Carmen Dragon, making his only appearance in this series. He was a Capitol mainstay for many years - as was George Greeley, who filled the same roles for Naughty Marietta. Neither use Herbert's own charts, even though the composer was famed for his orchestrations. For those, you can look to several more modern recordings.

Carmen Dragon and George Greeley

MacRae and Norman both sing well, although MacRae had a tendency to let his vocal line go slack during this period, a problem that never afflicted Norman. Capitol enlisted Los Angeles contralto Katherine Hilgenberg to sing "'Neath the Southern Moon."

From the 1906 production

These Capitol recordings date from 1954, and were the last in a series that began in 1950.

Naughty Marietta

Victor Herbert

Naughty Marietta, which graced Broadway in 1910, is Victor Herbert's most famous operetta and possibly his greatest achievement. Featuring an intricate - if unlikely - story by Rida Johnson Young, it takes place in the New Orleans of 1780, and involves pirates, slaves, disguises, a scheming politician and of course naughty Marietta.

Marguerite Piazza and Katherine Hilgenberg

Capitol decided to cast the title role with Marguerite Piazza, a talented singer with the required temperament but who also had a tendency to be squally and whose diction was not the clearest. She does match well with MacRae, however. Los Angeles contralto Katherine Hilgenberg joined the cast for "'Neath the Southern Moon," a good performance.

No matter who sings, Herbert's melodic profusion wins out. This particular work include both my own favorite Herbert melody ("I'm Falling in Love with Someone") and his most parodied piece ("Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life"). Capitol saved them both for the grand close of this quick and pleasant spin through Herbert's most enduring legacy. It and its disc mate are very well recorded, with the impact enhanced by ambient stereo.

Film still with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald

Unlike The Red Mill, I found no stills from the first production of Naughty Marietta, so we'll have to make do with a publicity photo from the famous 1935 film, with Jeanette MacDonald as Marietta and Nelson Eddy as the hero, Captain Richard Warrington.

The download includes a few additional stills from the original production of The Red Mill, plus a brief review of Naughty Marietta from The Gramophone. W.A. Chislett liked the production, but complained of McRae's diction: "I do not like 'comrade' pronounced with a short 'a'." OK then.

Bonus - Songs from Mlle. Modiste and Naughty Marietta

In the early 1950s, RCA Victor marketed a set of EPs and 10-inch LPs with excerpts from popular musicals, which it called the "Show Time" Series. For one of the entries, the label reached back to the early 1900s for Naughty Marietta and another Victor Herbert score, that of Mlle. Modiste.

These materials (and all the "Show Time" Series entries) have appeared on the blog once before, but this is a new ambient stereo mastering based on the Internet Archive's 10-inch LP, rather than the EPs I presented years ago.

Felix Knight and Doretta Morrow

The leading lights of these Herbert operettas were Doretta Morrow and Felix Knight, both veterans of stage and film productions. Morrow introduced many famous songs as an original cast member of Where's Charley ("My Darling, My Darling"), The King and I ("I Have Dreamed" and "We Kiss in Shadow") and Kismet ("Baubles, Bangles and Beads"). Knight was a regular in the operetta and musical recordings of this era, having taken part in productions of The Merry Widow, The Desert Song, The Red Mill, Can-Can, Kiss Me Kate and others. 

Edward Roecker

Radio and stage vocalist Edward Roecker joined the cast for Mlle. Modiste's "I Want What I Want When I Want It." Leading the orchestra for this LP was Broadway veteran Jay Blackton.

The "Show Time" presentations were even more abbreviated than the Capitol series - four songs from each of the two shows on a 10-inch LP. But the selections here are appropriate, and the performances and sound are excellent. Morrow in particular is an exciting performer. RCA sensibly leads Mlle. Modiste with her gorgeous performance of "Kiss Me Again," one of Herbert's best songs.

Return of RCA's "Show Time" Series

Here's another installment in RCA's "Show Time" Series of potted musicals, issued in 1953. This one was spurred by a request for The Little Show, and so we start off with an EP that presents hits from that 1929 revue.

You'll notice that the cover calls this The Little Shows rather than The Little Show. That's because one of the songs is from The Third Little Show, from 1931 - "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba," which hardly merits its inclusion.

Carol Bruce as Julie

The star of this record is Carol Bruce, who presents two songs associated with Libby Holman (recently heard on this blog), outdoing the originator with superb versions of "Can't We Be Friends" and "Moanin' Low." Bruce is perhaps best known for appearing as Julie in the 1946 revival of Show Boat. At the time of this recording, she was touring in Pal Joey. I was so impressed by her performance, that I went in search of my copy of her 1958 Tops LP, only to find it has gone missing. I'll be sure to transfer it if I ever locate it.

The EP's second side is less enthralling. Sheila Bond (then in Wish You Were Here and previously heard on this blog post) belts "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan." Her rendition will be a shock to those used to the urbane Fred Astaire-Jack Buchanan version or the wry Sinatra recording.

Finally, Hiram Sherman sprechstimmes his way through "Yuba," Herman Hupfeld's other hit. Arranger Lehman Engel thankfully spares us the tuba effects. I wonder if Yuba, his tuba and Cuba inspired "Katie Went to Haiti," which didn't appear for another eight years. Sherman had won a Tony that year for putting up with Bette Davis in Two's Company, and would win another one 15 years later.

Note that although the back cover credits Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz with the score of The Little Show, only "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" is by that team. "Can't We Be Friends" is by Paul James and Kay Swift, and "Moanin' Low" is by Dietz and Ralph Rainger.

Morrow and Lanza match pompadours

To fill out this post, I've added the Show Time Series version of Naughty Marietta, the 1910 Victor Herbert operetta with lyrics by Rida Johnson Young. For this EP, RCA paired Doretta Morrow with Felix Knight. Morrow was a fine artist who introduced many famous songs during her appearances in the original casts of Where's Charley (the incredibly gorgeous "My Darling, My Darling"), The King and I ("I Have Dreamed" and "We Kiss in Shadow") and Kismet ("Baubles, Bangles and Beads"). When this record was made, she had just appeared with Mario Lanza in the film Because You're Mine and was on Broadway in Kismet.

Felix Knight is perhaps best known for singing in three Laurel and Hardy films. A reliable artist, he pops up on a number of operetta recordings.

This version of Naughty Marietta was conducted by Jay Blackton, who was in the pit for many famed Broadway productions, starting with Oklahoma. He was conducting Wish You Were Here when these records were made.